1 Missing Boater Found Alive; Mother Still Missing

Linda Carman has been missing since September 18

A man lost at sea for nearly a week was headed to Boston Monday evening, a day after he was found alive at sea on a life raft.

Nathan Carman's mom is still missing.

Carman, 22, and his mother, 54-year-old Linda Carman, were reported missing Sept. 18 after heading out in the boat Chicken Pox and failing to return from a fishing trip off Point Judith, Rhode Island.

On Sunday afternoon, a China-based freighter called Orient Lucky spotted a life raft 115 nautical miles off Martha's Vineyard, found Nathan Carman inside of it and picked him up, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Nathan, a Middletown native who has been living in Vermont, was wearing a life vest and had an emergency bag of food and water. But there was still no sign of Linda Carman.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicole Groll said during a news conference on Monday that the chances of Linda Carman surviving are minimal.

"Unfortunately the decision to suspend a case is never an easy one and we will not be reopening the search for Linda Carman at this time due to the fact that survivability — we're beyond that point," Groll said.

Signs have been placed outside Linda Carman's home that ask people to "Never Give Up."

"We love her, we are waiting for her, and we want you with us," Sharon Hartstein, Linda Carman's longtime friend, said Monday. "This world is not the same without Linda in it, she has got to come back."

"She is a strong person, if she had access to fresh water somewhere, someway, she could still be out there," Hartstein said. "We are still anxious to find anything that will allow us to have some closure."

Hartstein says she hopes investigators can piece together what happened to Linda Carman.

"That's the big one. Where is she — what happened?" she said. "Does he know anything else? Or is there anything that he can direct us to help find her."

According to Groll, with the Coast Guard, she said only one life raft aboard the Chicken Pox was the one Nathan had so his mother would not have access to one.

"The likelihood of her being alive is minimal," Groll said.

Nathan Carman spoke briefly with the Coast Guard and told them the motorized boat the mother and son were in started taking on water off the coast of New York on Sunday, in an area called Block Canyon.

Nathan went looking for his mother to get in the life raft, but he couldn't find her, according to the Coast Guard.

Nathan is due to arrive in Boston sometime Tuesday night. A family friend said on Sunday that he was in good condition.

The Coast Guard search included an area near Block Island and it expanded through 62,000 square miles, from the coast of Rhode Island to New York and as far as New Jersey.

Hartstein, who has been friends with Linda for more than 20 years, said Linda let her know she would be leaving Ram's Point Marina in Point Judith early on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 18, and they were supposed to come back later that day.

Hartstein showed necn the last text messages between her and Linda: "So she sent this email Friday, I mean text message, saying that they were going from 'Rams Point around 1 [a.m. Sunday], back by 9 [a.m. Sunday]. Call me 12 noon if you don't hear from me. Thanks for being there.'"

Nathan, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, was the center of a 2011 investigation when he went missing and was found in Virginia.

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